Winter and Electric Vehicles

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For those in the northern hemisphere, winter will arrive in the next few months. This brought to mind that some people drive electric vehicles. There are two problems with electric vehicles. I thought I would discuss one of them - cold temperature.

As an electric vehicle travels in cold climates where the temperature falls below zero degrees C or 32 degrees F, the batteries cannot travel the same distance as they do when the temperature is warmer. They are temperature dependent. In the past during some winters, the electric vehicle car would come to a dead stop in the middle of the road when the batteries went dead. This can be very alarming.

So if you drive an all electric vehicle remember that winter can cause your engine to go DEAD.

Good safety tip!

Related article:
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hy ... 751769461/

It is hard on internal combustion engines, too.

The lower the temperature, the longer it takes to get oil to all the surfaces. I prefer not to start my car when it is below 40.

Have you ever seen pictures of the old airplanes where they had blankets around the engines and oil burners to warm the engines up before starting. If I understand it correctly, in cold temperatures the engines would often fail during takeoff if not warmed up before being started.

Wow ,, had been around aircraft many years but always closer to the equator.., Warmer area. So seeing the blankets and burner pots were not common, but makes perfect sense . Whenever I start my poor ole Riding. lawnmower ... craftsman .
With a Kohler V twin. air cooled . And so I turn over the engine a few times before letting it start. Also seems to get the carb to start doing its thing . Before engaging the start . Seems to helped it motors lifespan so far. But in the midwest, did blanket the motor area, and use a dog house warmer . Underneath it to help get engine and battery area warmer during extended freezes. seems to help. But our batteries here. Do not seem to survive that well here.
But the batteries for them are much less than car batteries .

Another thing they used to do on some really big engines was to have a short line of soldiers who would push a blade through and then get back in line. This was to distribute oil in the engine before starting.

Here's a more modern version.

Apparently it is to detect something called "hydraulic lock" on radial engines so that you can take corrective action to avoid damaging the cylinders.

From https://www.avweb.com/features/the-pilots-lounge-27radial-engines-and-hydraulic-lock/: